yomikoma

So, this last few months I've been thinking about my own moral/ethical foundation. I can't claim any great insights, but at least I have a process that's a step or two beyond "what someone else told me to think."

1) I want some conscious moral/ethical guidelines to tell me what to do. That way I'm not acting on instinct and old programming, which ends with me doing or supporting things that it turns out I don't like very much.

2) The world is a complicated place requiring a great many judgement calls. I can't possibly lay down rules for every situation. Besides which: having inflexible rules may get me in less trouble than having no rules at all, but much of the trouble it gets me in will have been entirely avoidable.

3) Therefore, I need some simple principles that I can generally stick to, that can inform those judgement calls.

I've ended up at a handful of things that sound like truisms because they've been through the cultural wash so many times.

The big one is "choose to be kind when possible." This runs back to the golden rule, though I'm fond of Hillel's "that which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow; this is the whole of the Law, all else is commentary." I'm not as good at this as I'd like. I'm still prone to letting old fears and old damage override my better nature. I try to do better, and to be kind to myself when I can't.

Related to that is "none of us without all of us," which is even more often honoured in the breach but provides guidance nonetheless.

And there's "intent isn't magic." It's not that only actions matter, especially in interpersonal relationships, but actions for sure matter a heck of a lot more than words or intent. I come to this from "the purpose of a system is what it does," which is kind of the long way round. Then again I have a long-standing tendency to take systems and authorities at their word, so maybe that was the best way for me to get there. (I also like the related "a system is not defined by rules but by how they are enforced," but that's less personally actionable.)

I don't have an unanswerable argument for any of these. I'm okay with that too. I'm not trying to convince anyone else, just myself.

In the course of writing this I realised it's only part of the story. The next bit will, I guess, be about acting on those judgement calls.

Erin's dog Avallu is gone. He was throwing up yesterday, Erin took him in to the vet today, and he didn't come home. Cancer, ruptured spleen, a large dog and ten years old.

Avallu was a Tornjak, a big fluffy livestock guardian dog. Mostly white; brown facemask, speckled muzzle, and a dark patch over his hindquarters. He came from somewhere in Europe. Erin and I picked him up in Van and drove him north to Fort.

Once the fence went up, and once he learned to stay inside it, he was an exemplary guardian. He chased off lynx and bears; he was polite to the cats and the various fowl. It took him awhile to warm up to Solly the new pup a couple of years ago, but eventually they (and Thea, a little younger than Avallu but arrived slightly before him) worked out a routine to keep the place safe. He was, I suspect, always a bit anxious. We got on well. I'd stand outside, watching birds or pigs or Erin, and he'd come and stand next to me, his hip pressed into my thigh.

I don't really have stories about Avallu, not like Whiskey being a scaredycat until he discovered that petting is Good or Void Demon the cat who 'doesn't like people' settling in on my lap. He was just always there, a solid presence in the chaos of farm life. He was the best of pups.